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Major killed civilian, took body along to leave grave empty

Publish Date: 4-12-17 5:39 PM

Srinagar: Two decades ago, an Indian army officer killed a civilian in Brath village of Sopore and took his body, keeping his grave empty forever.
There is an empty grave in Brath area of Sopore which was dug for a man, killed by the Indian army in the village in 1995.

After killing the man, the villagers say, the army took the body and declined to return it. “The grave which we dug for my husband was lying open for 11 days, but when the army officer declined to return the body, we closed it by burying some clothes in it,” said Sharifa Begum, widow of Nazir Ahmad Mir, a resident of Mir Mohalla, Brath. Villagers describe the day as one of the darkest days in their memory when an unarmed innocent civilian of the village was ruthlessly beaten up, dragged, tortured and killed.

It was on the 9th of June, 1995, Sharifa says, that her husband, Nazir Ahmad, was working in his fields when Major A K Chatterjee of the 9 Gorkha Regiment from Seelu camp, an officer who had terrified the village, swooped down on him, dragged him, beat him ruthlessly and took him away. Sharifa only came to know of the incident in the evening, when Nazir didn’t return from the fields.

“I was worried for his safety because that officer would come to our village a number of times a day. Arresting, beating, harassing and killing was common for him,” Sharifa said, adding that the next morning she along with her mother-in-law lodged a complaint in Sopore police station.

“Hundreds like Nazir have been killed in every nook and corner of Kashmir. Their relatives are also deprived of justice, just like we have been deprived,” Sharifa said.